Drum Dream Girl
How One Girl's Courage Changed Music

Name: Drum Dream Girl
Brand: Dreamscape Media
Availability: InStock
Author: Margarita Engle
ISBN: 9781666590357

Author: Margarita Engle

Narrator: Adriana Sananes

Unabridged: 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Published: 05/24/2016

Categories: Children's Nonfiction, Biographical, Girls & Women, Music

Synopsis

Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule—until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream. Inspired by the childhood of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba's traditional taboo against female drummers, Drum Dream Girl tells an inspiring true story for dreamers everywhere.

About Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse books, including the Newbery Honor winner The Surrender Tree, the PEN USA Award winner The Lightning Dreamer, and the verse memoir Enchanted Air, which has won many awards, including the inaugural Walter Dean Myers Award Honor and the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award. Her books have also received multiple Pura Belpre Awards and Honors, Americas Awards, Jane Addams Awards and Honors, and more.

About Adriana Sananes

Adriana Sananes is an award-winning bilingual New York City stage actress, director, and narrator. A recipient of a theatre fellowship from The Princess Grace Foundation, she has recorded more than 150 audiobooks, including Spanish versions of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman, and Pulitzer Prize winning Enrique’s Journey, for which she won a Audie for Best Spanish Narration.

About Rafael López

Rafael López, a four-time recipient of the Pura Belpre Illustrator Medal, grew up in Mexico City where he was immersed in the rich cultural heritage and native color of street life. To build community, López developed a mural style that works like a large scale paint by numbers. He has worked with hundreds of children, families, museums and community members to create murals that often reclaim blighted neighborhoods around the nation.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Abigail on August 15, 2019

Inspired by the story of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who dreamed of being a drummer in a time when that occupation was reserved for boys and men, Cuban-American author Margarita Engle spins a poetic narrative about a "drum dream girl" who cannot quell her natural impulse t......more

Goodreads review by Jason on April 27, 2015

Girls should be allowed to do anything they want! Including play the drums! A beautifully written and illustrated book. Very rich palette of colors.......more

Goodreads review by Katt on January 14, 2024

I love the colors, the fantastic illustrations, the girl who wants only to drum. I love how she doesn't give up despite what she's told, and how she finally convinces the world around her to give her a chance. Again, this is one of those biographies about someone that I've never heard of, but wish I......more

Goodreads review by Tasha on May 14, 2015

Inspired by a true story, this picture book is about a girl who refused to allow societal rules to stop her from her musical dreams. In Cuba, girls were not drummers, but one girl dreamed of pounding drums big and small and making amazing music. Everyone said that only boys could be drummers though,......more

Goodreads review by Betty on November 18, 2016

* Book Summary This is the story of a little multiracial girl who loved to play the drums and her dream was to be a professional drum player but finds that it is a taboo idea because only boys are the ones who play the drums. This book takes us through her story on how she change music. *awards Pura......more